This is the first article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. We start off with spatial memory - my personal favourite.

one more person moaning about Fitt's Law I think I'm going to spoon my eyeballs out.

Yes, most of us who are in development know it.

Yes, we all know the Windows start button sucks at it.

My problem with it is that it's over-applied to situations in which it has no application by people who have little to no context to what they're speaking about. It drives me absolutely nuts when people start spouting about GUI design without ever having completed any guided studies on UI design, been involved in TA testing of GUI principles or prototype software, and generally think UI design is about 'teh webpage should never scroll'.

Gah.

So thanks for trying to put something together that is more in-depth and might actually enlighten people that there's more to UI design than freakin' Fitts.